Radio Days

By Henry Lipput

It’s been five years since California’s The Black Watch released 31 Years of Obscurity their amazing collection of what the band had been doing for the previous three decades (I know I’ve said this before but you really need to check it out). And in the last five years The Black Watch, rather than resting on their laurels, have given us five more albums not to mention multiple singles and EPs.

The latest from The Black Watch is weird rooms (ATOM Records) where they are again led by singer, songwriter, and guitarist (and novelist) John Andrew Fredrick. Leaving California for Austin, Texas, to record the new album, Fredrick brought his gear and his guitarist son Chandler on a road trip to producer Misa Bullock’s studio. (My imagined road trip is suggested by the brief bursts of radio stations along the way that pepper the album.)

The sessions became something of a family affair with Sara Minsavage-Bullock, the producer’s wife, providing backing vocals on a few songs. (In the Bandcamp notes for weird rooms, Misa is described as “carrying on more duties than most mortals can accomplish” as he was responsible for drums, bass, percussion, guitar, keyboards, and string arrangements. Slacker.)

The Black Watch is known for its dream pop sound and there’s plenty of that on weird rooms. And although it’s not always clear where Fredrick’s influences come from, it’s more than a bit obvious in the album’s first song “Myrmidon.” With its pacing, production, and hazy backing vocals it very much seems to be a nod in the direction of "Dear Prudence" (and at the end there are brief “Walrus”-like strings).  The dream continues with “Miles and Miles” with a spoken word foreign-language voice talking to you while you’re asleep and thinking about a place and a time you’ve never been.

On “Gobbledegook” the band gives us an example of a different kind of classic Black Watch pop gem. Sarah Minsavage-Bullock is heard for the first time as she adds wonderful backing vocals to Fredrick’s lead. Another Black Watch sound is Fredrick’s acoustic guitar and on the title song there’s a terrific interplay of electric guitars (John Andrew and Chandler?).

The dream and the pop are combined on “Swallowed” which highlights some high-quality drumming from Misa who also shines with his string arrangement for the lovely ballad “You’ll Get Over It.”

Girl-group inspired new single from LMS8

Henry Lipput

LMS8 has just released “Love Connection,” a groovy new single on Bandcamp. Who, you may be wondering, exactly is this LMS8 you speak of?

You may know the folks behind LMS8 as the very much missed power pop duo Lisa Mychols and SUPER 8. The pair’s first trans-Atlantic collaboration was the fabulous single “Time Bomb” and culminated in 2020’s Trip & Ellie’s self-titled summer blast (Mychols also contributed to SUPER 8’s out-of-this-world Universal Journey in 2022).

Back together again for the first time since then, the duo has just given us “Love Connection.” It’s a girl-group inspired romp with Mychols, after taking some time for herself, is ready to “move on to a Love Connection” but without the games she’s had to deal with in the past. And SUPER 8? It’s all his hands on deck as he once again is playing all the instruments and providing some cool deep-voiced background vocals as well.  

And there’s a video too.