If you've been closely following the artistic trajectory of LA's Stoney Spring-- and there's a 99% chance that you have not-you know the surreal, mind-bending vibe that continues to bloom from the band's fertile black soil. In both its lyrics and musicianship, the band celebrates earthly pleasures and takes a satisfyingly defiant stand against mediocrity in all forms. Best described as "freak folk", but add marimba, lots of propulsive piano and drums (all played by Anthony Lacques, founding member and original drummer of I See Hawks in LA, the acclaimed alt-country band that continues to rock the West in its 17th year of existence), Stoney Spring reunites Anthony with fellow Hawks' Rob Waller (vocals) and brother Paul Lacques (lap steel, dobro), who is also the founder of instrumental juggernaut Double Naught Spy Car; upright bass (plucked by Stoney Spring regular Jimi Hawes, who used to tour with Sly Stone); and a woodwind quartet (courtesy of the Brendan Eder Ensemble).
The band's third album, "The Natural Sweetness of Cream", will be released next Friday, October 20th on Western Seeds Records. Sonically, the new record expands the range heard on the band's previous albums, 2013's debut "Right On Heliotrope" and 2015's "Don't Let Me Die At Coco's". It's all filtered through the ears of mixer extraordinaire Alfonso G. Rodenas, who has three Grammys for his work with Los Tigres Del Norte. Raised in California's high desert, as the band's lyricist, and lead vocalist on three of the album's ten tracks, Anthony invites the listener to share in his obsessions, from Central Valley agriculture, and nature's cycles of life and death, to Steely Dan.
The first single, and album opener, is "I Think I Am A Rasta." "I believe that my mind is my science, and my science is philosophy", Anthony says, and with that thought, the song comes in like a lamb, with folky acoustic guitar wrapped around his unassuming lead vocal, but goes out like a lion of Zion, with a euphoric instrumental jam and the final refrain, ("Come, creations!") sung in reverb-drenched harmony by Anthony and Rob. While the title hints at some lighthearted fun, the lyrics, and the soulful chorus, are anything but light. Anthony says, "They're a heartfelt reflection on grappling with the insanities and contradictions of life."
You can listen to "I Think I Am A Rasta"
here!
Another highlight of the album is "Revisiting the Past", which Anthony says is "a journey that takes us on a cyclical journey through space and time, making stops at the tragic 1985 death of D. Boon, the battlefields of the Somme and Verdun, and some future/present dystopia where we'll all be thankful to be safe from crime, more or less, and for doctors who understand the schizophrenic mind pulsating with drugs." Throughout the song, amid the lovely piano, marimba, and upright bass, Rob sings of the timeless healing power of music, nature and earthly pleasures, where "the grapes are plucked and sucked... and the tongues are touched by time's tonic, flowing, flowing, all flowers and fruit." As "Revisiting the Past" hits its joyous, bluesy, outro, the band is joined by The Brendan Eder Ensemble, a woodwind quartet that lends its gorgeous arrangements to three of the album's tunes.
To get to the heart of the Stoney Spring worldview, check out the track "Music Is Like Exercise For Words." In Anthony's words, "It's a truly stoney defense of natural rhythms, physical exertion, the power of language, and a broadside against the inanities of social media and digital culture in general." To wit: 'Like a bloodbank bum you sell your brain to the surveillance economy, and snap another photo of the world's slowest lobotomy...Destroy your temples, and your pimples, and all your f-ing problems, 'cause music is like exercise for words.'
And then there is "Life In the Western States" (Part 1 and 2) which defies explanation. Anthony claims the spoken voice on the tracks is that of Wade Truitt, a British ex-pat who fell in love with and settled in California's Mojave Desert in the late 1950s and never looked back. Truitt pulls no punches as he savages our reliance on "smart" technology ("Ah, it's a joyless society! But what do I know?") and laments our rapidly disappearing cultural freedom: "That shining glimmer is a receding point of light in the rear view mirror, as we lurch into another blank and formless year." Paul Lacques provides the beautiful dobro and lap steel that let Truitt's apocalyptic visions take flight.
Keeping with the tradition of their first two releases, Stoney Spring breaks up the heavy metaphysical trips on The Natural Sweetness Of Cream with purely groovy instrumentals. There's the explosive two minute rock blast of "Kindersound"; the irresistible blues of "Class of '72"; and the propulsive, handclapping, Abdullah Ibrahim-inspired rhythms of "Rhodes Scholar Figures It Out," which features the sax, flute, bassoon, and bass clarinet of the Brendan Eder Ensemble.
With one toe in American roots music, combined with gloriously rough-hewn psychedelia, and Anthony Lacques' surreal, acid-tongued lyrics, Stoney
Springs delivers another album of music that is untethered from stylistic rules on "The Natural Sweetness Of Cream".
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