MP3: Faraway Places – “The Sun Goes West”
The Faraway Places have arrived, bearing musical riches that deftly blend Motown rhythm, Lou Reed
guitar, and blown-out moog-styled synths. The sound is as earnest as it is eclectic, reflecting an
obsession not only with music, but also with the exuberant natural beauty found amid the tumbledown
hillsides of their Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The locale and lineup have changed over the years, but the core remains the same. Keyboardist/singer/chef Donna Coppola and writer/producer/Renaissance man Chris Colthart have been the constants in the lineup. The soulful psychedelia of the ’60s and the experimental reveries of German avant rockers Can have been a
constant sonic inspiration, even as the group has turned those influences inside out.
On their sophomore album, Out of the Rain, the Thunder & the Lightning, due on May 12, 2009 from Save It Records, the band connects the dots between blissed out psychedelic pop and experimental embellishment. The album germinated when Colthart traveled to Paris in 2001 with a trunk full of recording equipment and an expatriate’s fascination with the outsider experience. Allowed to percolate during the intervening years, and co-mixed with Tony Goddess and Keith Gendel (of Papas Fritas), the genre-bending romp that emerged is a freewheeling dose of sonic expansiveness that’s sincere without taking itself too seriously. “The Sun Goes West” possesses wistful radiance, while “Keep It Alive” hits the dance floor with taut, sexy introspection and “Still Be There” explores sonic collage with an arena-rock flavor, a sound the band has dubbed “California krautrock.”
The album follows the band’s celebrated debut, Unfocus On It, which was released in 2003 on
Eenie Meenie in the US and Bella Union in Europe. Recorded in a remote New Hampshire cabin, the
album featured its share of experimentation, including the spacey freak-out “Come Apart,” as well as
plenty of lush, California-style dreaming on “Marvelous Error” and the orch-pop mini-masterpiece,
“Summertime.” NME, as usual, said it best: “With gentle psychedelia, skuzzy guitar, and the sweetlystoned
surfer attitude, they serve up summery tunes by the VW camperload.”
Like the urban flora that inspires their sound, the Faraway Places strive to gather the surprising
moments of beauty, and maybe even transcendence, from the musical mess that occurs when you leave
the tape rolling and see what happens.
THE FARAWAY PLACES
May 02 Pioneertown, CA Pappy & Harriet’s
May 11 Los Angeles, CA The Echo
The Faraway Places
Out of the Rain, the Thunder & the Lightning
(Save It)
Street date: May 12, 2009
1. One Other
2. The Sun Goes West
3. Keep It Alive
4. F.F.F.F. Fall Down
5. You Can Cry
6. Just Let Go
7. Back in My Head
8. Run While True
9. Still Be There
10. One Other Another
THE FARAWAY PLACES LINKS:
MySpace – www.myspace.com/thefarawayplaces
Label Page – www.saveitrecords.com
Artist Page – www.thefarawayplaces.com