The Smoking Trees - Acetates (2012)

Here is a lovely treat for a Monday morning, some really cool sunshine infused, 60's styled psychedelia.

The Smoking Trees are duo from Los Angeles, California, made up of Sir Psych and L.A Al. Acetates is an all out psychedelic pop album that is decorated & performed in pure 60's fashion. 21 songs with over 70 minutes of music, which is full of catchy hooks, echoed harmonies, backwards guitars, harpsichords, sitars, and pounding drums. All of which that makes up an overall fun release to wind down 2012.

"Acetates" has a really warm sound and the production of the album is excellent, the songs are well crafted using a multitude of instruments and percussion producing catchy pop psyche songs that may well lead you to think we are just drawing into a good summer rather than into winter.

The official release date for the album is 27th November and you can stream and buy the album here: The Smoking Trees. Bandcamp

Contact, befriend, follow, like and love The Smoking Trees here: Facebook

Suzi Chunk - Girl from the neck down.

A while back I ran a feature on the brilliant "State Records" and some of their artists, I briefly mentioned Suzi Chunk then, but this very talented young lady really deserves a feature of her very own on the blog, Suzi's songs will make you want to smile and dance and return to them time after time.

Teesside born Suzi moved to Cardiff in the late 90's where she began her singing career providing backing vocals for a wide variety of bands/artists. These included Tigertailz, Syd Kitchen,Then Came The Wheel, Alan Thomson All Stars, Frank O'Hagan, Rhian Benson, Angel De Lux, Leighton Jones, Angel Farringdon and the John Martyn Band. In the mid-Noughties she worked with rock/funk outfit Dark Chunk (from where she took her surname and became Suzi Chunk) who were named as Best Newcomer at the Glastonbury Festival in 2004 and went on to record an album-"Multi Speed Stimulator" -in 2005. She went on to work and record with Omega66 and still regularly plays live gigs with Monkjack.

It was Suzi's lead vocal work with Omega66 (the track "Celebrity Burn Out" to be precise) that caught the attention of songwriter Glenn Prangnell (of Groovy Uncle)and prompted him to ask Suzi if she'd be interested in recording lead and backing vocals on a Groovy Uncle album. Suzi was receptive to the idea and travelled to Sandgate Sound Studios in Kent to record 3 songs written especially for her. By the end of the session it became obvious to all that this album should be a Suzi Chunk album and everyone got to work on what would become the "Girl From The Neck Down" album. During one of those sessions it was decided that a single was needed and "Look Back And Laugh"/"Tripwire" became Suzi's debut solo release in April 2012. Both album and single were released by State Records on vinyl.

Suzi's track "Look Back And Laugh" has been short listed for Little Stevens "Coolest song in the world 2012" so if you like what you hear and want to show your support go over and click on her song to vote for her, no registration or anything needed to participate and you can vote once every 24 hours too, I know I will be!

Little Stevens coolest song in the world 2012

The album is available on cd format here: www.groovyuncle.co.uk

Vinyl format here: State Records

Downloads are available here: itunes and amazon

Contact, befriend, follow like and love Suzi Chunk here: Facebook

Sunday Sun - III FREE DOWNLOAD

Now this album has some fantastic harmonies and tunes, I can't help thinking of Fountains of Wayne when listening to Sunday Sun, and that can only be a positive thing.  Having the word "Sun" in the bands name is perfect, if I close my eyes and listen to this, I can pretty much feel the warmth of the sun on my back, this is music for summer days kicking back, hanging with friends and enjoying a long cold beer and whilst summer is but a distant memory now, this should help to keep those winter blues at bay.

Sunday Sun hail from Uterecht/Amsterdam but have a sound that will make you think of Californian beaches and sun kissed days, happy days!

Sunday Sun are:

  Yoshi Breen Vocals/Guitar/Keys

Koen-Willem Toering Vocals/Guitar 

Jan Teertstra Bass/Vocals 

Wouter Rentema Drums/Vocals

Go grab your Free Download here: Bandcamp

(Be sure to check out the other amazing releases by the band too!)

Contact, befriend, follow, like and love Sunday Sun here: Facebook

The Biarritz Boys - Enjoy the hip, slick, ultra​-​violent and super sexy surfsound of​.​.​. (Name Your Price Download)

The Dutch, famed for their canals, bikes, tulips windmills and clogs now add surf to their attractions, not just any old surf, super cool surf music that will have you flocking in your droves to Amsterdam with your longboard and hanging ten along the stretches of the Prinsengracht and Herengracht canals.

Ok, maybe not, but, The Biarritz Boys play surf music that will move you into a state of mind that will make you want to grab your board and head for the nearest stretch of beach.

Founded in 2001. Played wet 'n wild surfshows all over Europe. Just finished a smashing new album. Ready to shoot curls on stages all around the globe.

- Enjoy the hip, slick, ultra-violent and supersexy surfsound of The Biarritz Boys -

The album is available for download for  a "Name Your Price" fee, as always, with this option, please consider making some sort of donation to the band, this will ensure that they are adequately funded to make more great music in the future.

Download and Stream the album here: Bandcamp

Contact, befriend, follow, surf, like and love The Biarritz Boys here: Facebook

39th And The Nortons - On Trial

39th and The Nortons serve up a very tasty slice of 60's garage, with a side helping country and a large splash of psyche, they then put it into a blender and serve up the Soup de jour!

Fans of The Seeds, Count Five, Music Machine etc should be all over this band like a rash, listening to these guys and these songs, you would be hard pressed to believe that they weren't there treading the same stages as the aforementioned bands.

Contact, befriend, follow, like and love 39th and The Nortons here: Facebook

Listen to the full album here - Soundcloud
Buy the Cassette from Evil Hoodoo Records here - Bandcamp
Contact - thirtyninthandthenortons@hotmail.co.uk 
Blog - http://39thandthenortons.tumblr.com/

Crusaders of Love - Take It Easy....But Take It!

Crusaders of Love remind me quite a lot of The Exploding Hearts which sits just fine with me.  The band are from Lille in France and kick out a real punchy blend of Power Pop and Punky Garage and in their own words, "Make a delicious gooey mess of it!"  Delicious for sure, a mess, no, this is really great music!

The band list their only interest as fun and it certainly sounds as though they are having plenty on this album.

Photo by Janicks

Stream and buy the album on the best format in the world, vinyl...here: Bandcamp

Contact, befriend, like and love The Crusaders Of Love here: Facebook

Be sure to check out the bands over long player "Never Grow Up" over on bandcamp too!

Los Autonautas . Lo Que Quiero OUT TODAY

I have been waiting to shout about this album since receiving a promo copy a couple of weeks back from the band, I have really fallen in love with this band after featuring their self titled debut album on the blog.
Once again the album the album is recorded entirely in Spanish and despite my ability to just about manage to order a cerveza (beer) or cafe con leche (coffee with milk) in Spanish, nothing is lost on me with the album, the songs are bouncy, upbeat, danceable even and bring a huge smile to my face, I wonder just how much more I would love this band if I understood them?

"Lo Que Quiero" which translates as "What I Want" (see, I am getting good at this!)  is released today and I am sure that they will win over a fair few new fans with this album, both within the Spanish speaking countries and beyond.  

Los Autonautas will certainly be landing in my top albums of the year without any shadow of a doubt, this album, like their debut is an absolutely brilliant affair, there is not a single low point on this album, no filler tracks, this is an absolute rocker from start to finish BUY IT!!!

The album will be available from Bandcamp to stream and download sometime today: Bandcamp

(The debut album will also be available too) Physical copies of the album can be bought by placing an order to the band via facebook or by e mailing the band at somosautonautas@gmail.com

Contact, follow, befriend like and love Los Autonautas here: Facebook