Some More Stuff I Missed in 2018 from The Suncharms and Character Actor

Life Gets in the Way

Slowly but surely, I'm getting to some of the things I intended to mention throughout 2018. And, look at it this way. My being late to the party on some things is just a way to shine a continued, well-deserved (albeit tiny) spotlight on some of these releases. Stuff doesn't stop being worth your time just because it may be a few weeks or months or even years old.

Anyway...

The Suncharms, "Red Dust"

The Suncharms formed in Sheffield back in 1989. Their dreamy, shoegaze-ish sound landed them supporting slots with bands like Catherine Wheel, Television Personalities, The Orchids, Cranes, and Curve. The band released two EPs in 1991 and even did a Peel Session. By 1993, however, bandmembers' lives started moving in different directions; and The Suncharms called it quits by April of that year.

In 1992, The Suncharms had been discussing maybe releasing a single with Slumberland. They sent a DAT; never heard back, so assumed it wasn't meant to be. Fast-forward to 2016. The parties were chatting again, and Slumberland confessed to having never received that DAT two decades earlier. They were interested in new music, however; and the result of all of that was The Suncharms' release of "Red Dust" last year.

The Suncharms' sound maintains the wall of guitar feel of their shoegaze contemporaries but trades out some of the explosive noise for more subdued, pensive pop. It sits pretty squarely in the CoolDad Music wheelhouse.

"Red Dust" b/w "Film Soundtrack" is out now on Slumberland Records.



Character Actor, Character Actor

Speaking of the differing directions that life can take, parenthood is a pretty common one. For the members of Character Actor, fatherhood saw them putting the brakes on some projects; but it brought them together for something new.

Made up of Jeff Schroeck (The Ergs!, Black Wine) on vocals and guitar, Brian Gorsegner (Night Birds) on drums, and Evan Kiel (Full Of Fancy) on bass, Character Actor released their self-titled, four-song, seven-minute EP last spring. It's aggressively bouncy (bouncily aggressive?) power pop on "Out of Hands," "What I Learned from Righteous Cowboys," and "On Rubicon Beach." It's something a little more melodic, complete with vocal harmonies, on "72 Paperbacks." It's a solid set of extremely enjoyable songs that draws from all of the best parts of the members' other bands. It's, by definition, dad rock.



Character Actor the EP is out now on Dirt Cult Records. Character Actor the band play Asbury Park Brewery on February 1st along with Swamp City Rockers and Von Mons.

So, you see? Life can get in the way, but then you can release some new music after a long time or you can get together with some friends who live nearby and start cranking out some songs or you can just start getting back to doing the stuff you've always done.

Tony Molina, Kill the Lights, 2018

Album Review

By Henry Lipput

Tony Molina's outstanding new album Kill The Lights has ten songs that clock in at no longer than two-and-a-half minutes each, and the whole album has a less than fifteen-minute running time. His previous release, 2016's Confront The Truth EP had songs that were even shorter. But don't let the length of Kill The Lights put you off. It's chock full of musical gems that will more than satisfy a power pop lover's minimum daily requirements.

Although I have nothing to back up my impression that Kill The Lights is a breakup album, because Molina wears his influences -- and his heart -- on his sleeve, I can't help comparing the lyrics in many of these songs to other fairly recent lost-love albums like Beck's Sea Change and Duncan Sheik's Phantom Moon. 

"How can I ever let you know / It seems that there's no place for us to go," Molina sings on the opening track "Nothing I Can Say." With its gorgeous Rickenbacker jangles -- one of many great guitar sounds on the album -- and warm harmonies, it's like a classic early Byrds single. 

"Now That She's Gone," with the lyric "And I wonder if she'll ever come back home," has a tune that recalls John Lennon's "Oh My Love" as written and performed by Elliott Smith. "Before You Go" also brings to mind the beautiful acoustic songs in Smith's catalog. 

The lovely, heartbroken "When She Leaves" is an acoustic gem. "When she leaves me / Where am I to go? / If it's over / I'm old enough to know / I know I always let her down / But I can't live without her now." 

With "Jasper's Theme," we're in prime Teenage Fanclub territory with Norman Blake at the helm and signs of a tentative new love: "But when I see her now / She's the only joy my life will allow." 

If "Nothing I Can Say" could be from the Roger McGuinn songbook, "Give He Take You" is Byrds-era Gene Clark and contains more new love hints in this melancholy but hopeful lyric: "I do not know if I should see her / 'Cause I've been here for some time / She's always on my mind" and "She's the only love I've found."

Kill The Lights is out now on Slumberland Records.