Rob Jones

Four-Star Riot Play “Beautiful Soul”

Posted on June 11, 2018June 10, 2018 by Rob Jones

Four-Star riot hail from Clearwater, Florida, trading in guitar-driven power pop that’s done a bit of lifting and has put on some brawn.

The band, made up of Steve Alex (vox and guitar), Mike Chilton (vox, drums), Aaron Akers (bass, vox), and Finn Walling (lead guitar, vox) will debut their newest record Daylight next week, June 15 via The Orchard.

In the meantime, here’s choice cut from that record to enjoy right now, friends.

“Beautiful Soul” is line with the album’s hopeful title. It’s the closing track on Daylight about finding beauty in everyone even if it takes a while to do so. Listen!

As it turns out, the song has some significance to the rest of the album, being something of a bright spark to kick the whole thing off. I talked with Steve Alex via email about that. He explained.

It was the first song we recorded for this album and really the catalyst for the whole thing. We were playing a show a in St. Pete late 2016. Steve Connelly who recorded and mixed the album was the sound engineer at that show (and) liked the song.(He) asked us if we wanted to record it with him at his studio. The track turned out great and the experience was pleasant, so we started writing and tracking the rest of the songs two or three at a time.

The rest of the record is replete with anthems that make you want to jump around, break things, and hug people. It’s full of radio-friendly melodies, crunchy guitar, and impassioned vocals.

Most importantly, Four Star Riot demonstrate an ability to create music that connects with some pretty relatable themes within all of that, with “Beautiful Soul” being a fine example both on the new album and in general.

For more about Four Star Riot here are some important links on which to get to clicking, friends:

Remember too, the new record Daylight comes out June 15.

Otherwise,

Happy Listening!

Pack of Three: Becoming Bristol, Confusionaires, Morten Lava

Posted on June 6, 2018June 4, 2018 by Rob Jones

This is the first “pack of three” post ever, friends; a weekly series that groups three magnificent, although sometimes very stylistically disparate, musical gems together.

This week, we have a selection of aural delights ranging from chilled out pop electronica, to boot-stompin’ Saturday night rockabilly, to pastoral and introspective folk-pop.

Get stuck in!

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Becoming Bristol, “Sort Myself Out”

Name: Becoming Bristol.

From: Seattle, Washington.

Sound: Spacey and relaxed pop music with dreamily ambient electronic textures.

Story: Once monikered “The Exchange”, Becoming Bristol is a new musical entity, with this song being an anthem to starting again while taking responsibility for the past, too. Being in a band and touring since their teens, you can understand how autobiographical this song might be.

Links: Facebook, Instagram, band site

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Confusionaires, “Everybody’s Talking (But Nobody’s Talking to Me)”

Name: Confusionaires

From: Edmonton, Alberta

Sound: Rollickin’ three-piece twangy barroom rockabilly.

Story: This tune is featured on their newest record, Time to Make a Little Mess With …, contrasting the ballsy swing of the music with the socially awkward narrative found in the lyrics. I can relate to both, of course! Also, here’s the live version.

Links: Facebook, band site, Bandcamp

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Morten Lava, “In A Daydream”

Name: Morten Lava

From: Denmark (now based in London)

Sound: Wistful, melancholic, harmony-laden acoustic folk-pop.

Story: Trading in a sound that hooks into a similar sonic territory as José Gonzalez, Morten Lava’s (nee Larsen’s) music is an exploration across genres, and with plenty of atmosphere to enjoy along the way. The EP In A Daydream, was released today! To those of you within range, Morten is doing an EP launch party today at the Notting Hill Arts Club in Kensington, London.

Links: Buy the EP on iTunes, artist site.

***

This is the part where I ask you your favourites of the three, friends. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

Happy Listening!

Peter Cat Play “Hand Through Hair”

Posted on June 4, 2018June 4, 2018 by Rob Jones

Peter Cat, a duo from sunny Glasgow, bring their latest single “Hand Through Hair” in video form. Watch it right here.

The song is a follow-up to their first single “Keeping Up With Jacob”, and will serve as a harbinger to their upcoming debut EP produced by songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and front for the indie band Catholic Action, Chris McCrory.

For their part, Peter Cat make pop music that in their words contains “a bit of oddness” that pulls from a variety of sources across the musical spectrum, from the push-pull glittery boogie beat of seventies glam-rock to the arty and urbane music of Neil Hannon and Jarvis Cocker. There’s even a bit of David Sylvian in the vocals, to my ears.

The oddness in their music perhaps is connected to the origin of their name; the jazz club founded in 1978 by magical realist author Haruki Murakami in Tokyo of the same name – Peter Cat . It’s not odd to name your band after a favourite author’s endeavour, of course. But considering the subject matter of Murakami’s novels like trans-dimensional talking cats, the duo have hitched their wagon to the eccentric and surrealistic.

These ingredients are evident in this song and certainly in the video for it, while still touching on and exemplifying what pop music should be; familiar terrain to welcome the listener, complete with provoking an impulse to dance! But there’s a lot that’s unfamiliar here too, which is what makes “Hand Through Hair” unique. It takes some unexpected turns to surprise and delight.

Maybe that has to do with the contrast between genres that the band are playing with in their efforts to bridge the pop music of the past with that of the present. Either way, “Hand Through Hair” has another trait that is essential to pop music beyond all of that. It’s fun. What with all of the other elements at work here, this is the most important.

Peter Cat will be playing dates in Scotland this week, drifting southward during the summer and into the fall, UK readers.

Get the full dates right here.

You can like the Peter Cat Facebook page

You can even follow them on Twitter, and on Instagram, for goodness sake!

Happy Listening!

Welcome to Radio Free Lightning Bug

Posted on June 2, 2018June 2, 2018 by Rob Jones

I am a music writer.

Or at least up until December of 2017, I was.

For ten years, I authored a moderately popular blog called The Delete Bin. You can still visit that site right here. If I do say so myself, there’s some pretty good stuff there.

In December of 2017, I retired that noble blog. It was time. Today, June 2 2018, I’ve started this project – Radio Free Lightning Bug. And welcome to it, friends.

Why did I start this? Especially considering that I stopped writing The Delete Bin because I complained at the time that the golden age of the blog had passed. I still believe that to be true.

Yet, here’s the thing and at the danger of repeating myself; I am a music writer. I can’t help it.

With RFLB, I will have an outlet again, free of the format and identity of The ‘Bin. Since I want to preserve that former identity, I thought I’d start fresh. Simple as that.

But how else will Radio Free Lightning Bug differ from its predecessor?

Mainly by focusing on independent music.

During the ten years spent helming the ‘Bin, I kind of sidelined in featuring new music from up and coming, or even struggling, musicians and songwriters. I discovered just how much great stuff is being made now, and so much of it deserves a wider audience.

Maybe I won’t be able to push it to the stratosphere.

But, I can provide some molecules of fuel to help and present it to music fans in a way I feel it deserves to be.

That’s the mission of this project; to amplify, however minutely or otherwise, the music being made by brilliant and perhaps not widely known artists.

I will post showcases of artists. I will create playlists for readers and listeners. I may do some interviews too, if anyone’s amenable.

In any case, thanks for considering this humble project of mine.

I will do my best.

Rob Jones

Radio Free Lightning Bug Editor-in-Chief