the black watch follow up 2023’s Future Strangers LP on Atom Records with their new album for Dell’Orso on Saturday 20th April 2024 (selected for Record Store Day and released on yellow vinyl). EDDA75
Includes unlimited streaming of the morning papers have given us the vapours
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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
The Morning Papers Have Given Us the Vapours was made with the black watch bandmates and producers/engineers Rob Campanella (Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Tyde, The Warlocks) and Andy Creighton (The World Record, Parson Red Heads). Ben Eshbach, formerly of The Sugarplastic, arranged the strings. Kesha Rose guests on lead vocals on the second single, Oh Do Shut Up. And the great Lindsay Murray once again lends her beautiful backing vox to a number of tracks.
the black watch songwriter/frontman John Andrew Fredrick wrote the ten songs on this, his Los Angeles-based band's latest album, entirely unselfconsciously, with no set goal in mind other than to revel in the joy of songwriting, and, eventually, the luxury of recording his music with his more-than-accomplished band. The Morning Papers Have Given Us the Vapours, produced separately and together by Rob Campanella and Andy Creighton evinces the black watch's often stunning ability to, as Andy Gill once observed in The Independent, "find chaos in the calm, melody in the miasma."
For the new LP, the band recruited longtime friends and allies Ben Eshbach (the Emmy-Award-winning frontman of The Sugarplastic) and Lindsay Murray (Gretchens Wheel) to compose and arrange strings and sing heaps of lovely backing vocals, respectively.
And the result? A collection of songs that Fredrick, in his quite-but-not-quite self-deprecatory way, might call another set of brilliant failures. "Every song, every LP we do, is a failure of sorts--no matter how powerful or beautiful or pleasing-to-us it turns out," John concludes. "I have often said that my aim is to write songs as good as anything on The Beatles... and I will never achieve my goal. And thus I'll have to keep at it, keep trying. And chin-chin to that!"
And now your attention's been brought to a band (or you've heard of them or heard a track or two down the years) that has been pegged by The L.A. Weekly as "a national treasure" as well as "the most criminally-neglected indie pop group imaginable."
So here's to the prospect of that ostensible neglect becoming as much of a thing of the past as John Andrew Fredrick's year-long stint in bed.
credits
released May 4, 2024
John Andrew Fredrick--guitars, vocals, bass, percussion
Rob Campanella--bass, percussion
Andy Creighton--lead guitars, drums, bass
Andy Campanella--drums
Kesha Rose - vocals on 'oh do shut up'
produced & engineered by Rob Campanella & Andy Creighton
additional engineering: Kevin Dippold
'more lies' produced/ engineered by Misha Bullock
mastered by Scott Campbell
art direction & design: Ned Spires (with thanks to Bobby Klang)
supported by 16 fans who also own “the morning papers have given us the vapours”
Just picked up the vinyl based on the strength of two outstanding tracks I’ve heard so far, and Charlie “the Quaker”’s glowing review. Amazing stuff. Matthew Golosinski
Post-punk meets a very classic alt-rock sound on the new record from this Chicago group. RIYL The Breeders, Dinosaur Jr, and Yo La Tengo. Bandcamp New & Notable May 4, 2024