New music dump: Daze Baby, Fats LaBell, Tony Imperatrice
Plus, RIP to cowboy singer Jack Hannah and Blake Jones gets international.
Here’s your new music dump; or what you should be listening to for the next week.
Daze Baby released its latest album, “Blooming Clover,” on Saturday.
The 11-tracks are full of disclosure.
“This is the project that we’ve always wanted to release,” the band wrote in an Instagram post.
“It’s almost like our first ‘real’ album. There’s baked in layers to this one — on the surface it’s an easy-listening song, at the bottom of the iceberg it’s a confession of who we are.”
The band often gets lumped in as “psych rock” and the album does hit heavy with the late ‘60s vibes, especially on the early tracks (the opening track “Green Star,” for example). Much of this is due to Mason Robison’s vocal baritone, which hits like Jim Morrison in his less screamy moments (though I also hear Ian Curtis?).
The album sheds some the obvious retro influences at it progresses. It never gets truly “loud” but there are hints that there could be a post-punk/post rock/shoegaze band buried somewhere in there (see: the guitar work on “Joker’s Smile”).
Bottom line: In a world of singles and EPs it’s refreshing to have a full-on album to explore. “Blooming Clover,” is available on streaming platforms.
Fats LaBell, the solo project from drummer Antonio (Tony) Montanez released its full EP on Friday. Montanez started teasing the first single “Treasure” back in June, billing the project as “South East Fresno Psych-Soul.”
The “Lowe Ave.” EP delivers more on that promise. The five songs feel linked sonically; echo and reverb drenched, with a kind of retro sway in the guitar and drum work.
The songs feel like they were pulled from the past at some late night back yard summer party (maybe somewhere on Lowe Ave.).
Of note: The official Fats LaBell linktree includes shortcuts to Roosevelt School of the Arts, Lane Elementary and Robertitos.
It’s been about a month since Tony Imperatrice released “Segments,” but I just stumbled onto it this week. So …
Imperatrice (who some will recognize from his organ work around town) describes the six tracks as “ambient/experimental music, taking you through a journey of loss and self-discovery.”
This is headphone music (mean for more than the fidelity of computer speakers). These are six electronic soundscapes not meant to be simply dropped into. The shortest track, “Obsessive Love,” clocks in at just under six minutes. The longest, the organ heavy “Hitting Bottom,” pushes 13-plus minutes.
“Segments,” is available on Bandcamp.
RIP Son of the San Joaquin singer Jack Hannah
As a founding member of the Sons of the San Joaquin, Jack Hannah was the Central Valley’s representative of cowboy culture.
Hannah died July 31 at the age of 88.
Hannah, along with with brother Joe and nephew Lon, started playing (and then recording and releasing) traditional cowboy music in the late 1980s. They became wildly popular among fans of early Western music (the more traditional folk forbearer of what would become popularized county music) and were inducted into the Western Music Association Hall of Fame in 2006.
None other than Roy Rogers described the band as “the only singing group alive who I feel sound like the original Sons of the Pioneers.”
Rogers got his start with the Sons of the Pioneers in the 1930s.
Over the years, the Sons of the San Joaquin, also became popular around town for its annual Christmas shows and for performing with any number of local musicians (including longtime friend Ray Appleton, who was always more of rock guy, but also seems to love his history).
A funeral for Hannah will be held 10 a.m. Aug. 10 at People’s Church on Cedar Avenue. A celebration of life is also being planned, but a date and time have not yet been announced.
Upcoming, with Blake Jones and the Trike Shop
Any rumors of Blake Jones’ demise, have been greatly exaggerated.
The pop singer and song writer had taken some time off recently for health issues, but is back “and stronger every day,” he says. Jones and his band The Trike Shop have two upcoming shows, including a spot on the International Pop Overtrhow Festival.
First, the band plays Aug. 14 (next Sunday. I’ll remind you.) at Fulton 55 with Spygenius, Third Rail Power Trip and Guy Beard and the Lunch Wagon Romeos. This is an early show with a 6 p.m. start time. Tickets are $5-$8.
For those up for a trip to the city, Jones and the Trikes will then join Spygenius Aug. 18 for a show at Hotel Utah. This is the first night of the International Pop Overthrow Festival’s stop in San Francisco.
Spygenius are labelmates with Jones (see: Big Stir Records) and coming in from Canterbury, UK.
That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com