Polyvinyl is extremely excited to announce The Freakishly Bizarre Yet Terribly True Tales of Sonny & The Sunsets — a 20-page full-color comic book written by Sonny Smith and Ben Montero and illustrated by Ben Montero.
The comic is available in a limited edition of 500 and may be purchased only direct from the Polyvinyl E-Store. All copies include a full-color flexi postcard featuring a previously unreleased Sonny & The Sunsets track. The comic books are ready to ship now (just in time for the Holidays!) and include an instant download of the exclusive song at checkout.
TOUR DATES: 2/17 – Portland, OR – The Doug Fir Lounge * * = w/ Colleen Green More about the new album, Talent Night at the Ashram: A big soup of sonic ideas that wouldn’t normally be glued together, the songs onTalent Night at the Ashram make a large collage that mixes cinematic stories of fringe characters. Begun as a film project that ultimately failed, each song was originally a short film that, when strung together, formed a feature-length movie. As Sonny Smith was writing the scripts and hiring the actors (even shooting a few of the clips), the scripts began to morph into songs. Equal parts Fellini and Os Mutantes, Talent Night at the Ashram is cinematic in its storytelling and kaleidoscopic in its mixing and merging of musical genres. On album opener “The Application,” Smith applies to be a human being to the tune of Beach Boys harmonies, ragtag beats and ’80s synths. “Happy Carrot Health Food Store” tells an epic saga of grocery store employees set to a soundtrack that takes listeners on a psychedelic odyssey with elements of jazz and a hallucinogenic sequence including a conversation with a girlfriend swimming in his beer glass, or is that a dog? ’60s folk, electric sitars, flutes, and myriad other sounds help accentuate tales of professional bowlers in desperate need of a strike (“Icelene’s Loss”), a mansion that houses every woman Smith has ever known (“The Secluded Estate”), and Occupy meetings ending in bad love (“Secret Plot to Destroy the Underground”). Recording was a communal effort mostly done at Smith’s home on this tape machine with musicians such as Shayde Sartin (The Fresh & Onlys), Garret Goddard (King Tuff), Kelley Stoltz, Rusty Miller, Ian McBrayer, and more. Pairing uniquely off-the-wall stories with an ambitious musical scope, Talent Night at the Ashram finds Smith once again securing his status as one of today’s most arrestingly inventive songwriters. Sonny & the Sunsets Talent Night at the Ashram
(Polyvinyl)
Street Date: Feb. 17, 2015
Formats: CD/LP/Cassette/Digital. Vinyl will be 180 gram limited edition of 500 exclusive to the Polyvinyl webstore on light blue. There will also be an unlimited version on red vinyl.
Pre-order it here Track List:
1. The Application 2. Cheap Extensions 3. The Secluded Estate 4. Talent Night at the Ashram 5. Alice Leaves for the Mountains 6. Happy Carrot Health Food Store 7. Blot Out the Sun 8. Baby Jokin 9. Icelene’s Loss 10. Secret Plot
SONNY & THE SUNSETS LINKS:
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