The same day as Dan Andriano’s „Hurricane Season“ was released there was another release through Asian Man Records, this time from the boss itself. Mike Park has released his first full length childrens album called „Smile“.

The songs are perfectly arranged for children: catchy music & perfect lyrics. It’s a fun listen for grown-ups and I’ve catched myself dancing through my flat to „Wiggly Wiggly Worm“ more than once already. I had several kids as test listener meanwhile, before the two CDs that I have will pass on to their destinations. No matter what age they were (9 months to 7 years) they loved it. Especially the first track with his typical Ska appearance is such a good mood song that all of them wanted more directly after that. The songs have the perfect length to keep the kids attention!

Additionally some of the lyrics are not only funny, but even make some sense in a educational way. One of my three year old test kids, even though he’s german and has never spoken English beforehand, was able to count from 1 to 8 in English after listening once or twice to the album. Nice job Mr. Park!

Tracklist (self-explaining)

1. Wiggly Wiggly Worm
2. Apples Are My Favorite
3. Little Green Frog
4. Everybody Loves To Jump
5. I Can See The Ocean
6. 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..Drums
7. When The Light Turns Red You Stop
8. Paint With Me
9. Turn Off The Lights
10. Bus Driver Gus
11. I Love To Play My Saxophone
12. We All Live At Animal Park

9th September another dearly awaited release came out across Germany. I was in the lucky position to have it two days early due to the fact that I had ordered it in England where the release date was 6th September. The bands name: The Horrible Crowes, which features as member Mr. Brian Fallon and Mr. Ian Perkins. Whereas Brian Fallon is sure known as the singer of the band „Gaslight Anthem“ the genuine fan might not be aware that Ian Perkins is the guitar tech of Brian for exactly that band. So already the notice that Brian would start a new solo project with his guitar tech raised high expectations into that upcoming release.

When the first demos of „Elsie“ could be heared it was absolutely clear that this would not at all be anyhting similar than the music Brian is „normally“ doing with his main band. „Elsie“ contains 12 songs that are totally different from any Gaslight Anthem song and they would definitely not fit on a Gaslight Anthem album. The songs are mostly much calmer and slower, more or less based on Brians voice. I’ve already listened to it some days in my car on the way to work and so far I can say it’s beautiful music. A kind of music that I would rather place in a dark little bar or little club than in a concert venue. Bittersweetness or sadness would be the feelings it carries for me.

The first release „Behold The Hurricane“ is definitely the most uptempo song on the whole record and possibly the one that comes closest to that what is known from Gaslight Anthem. I would not recommend „Elsie“ to fans that mainly stick to the first Gaslight Anthem release. Most of them will directly start to complain and I’m sick of those discussion about  „selling out / mainstream“. And there’s no way to compare it with any Gaslight Anthem album. For anybody who likes high quality deeply touching music with a raspy voice I can only recommend to give it a listen. It’s a wonderful record and I’m quite curious how some of those songs will sound like if they are played during Revival Tour, maybe featuring Chuck, Dan or Dave in them. I believe this is going to be awesome!

For everybody who wants to give it a listen with one or two tracks to decide I’d recommend „Sugar“, „Ladykiller“ & „Black Betty And The Moon“ which are clearly sticking out for me. Followed by „Go Tell Everybody“ or „Crush“

Tracklist:

1. Last Rites
2. Sugar
3. Behold The Hurricane
4. I Witnessed A Crime
5. Go Tell Everybody
6. Cherry Blossoms
7. Ladykiller
8. Crush
9. Mary Ann
10. Black Betty And The Moon
11. Blood Loss
12. I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together

This year is definitely the year of solo / side projects … and another one fell into my lab this morning.  Joey Cape, Tony Sly, Jon Snodgrass & Brian Wahlstrom have a new project called Scorpios ( related to the fact that they have all this same zodiac sign in common) and have released a 10 track album containing 10 awesome, beautiful songs, mostly acoustic.

One of the points that makes this album so incredibly beautiful is the combination of exactly those voices, that are all known through more or less famous punk bands and which couldn’t be more different. A wonderful album for a laid back evening, relaxing on the couch, drinking a glass of wine (or beer)!

For the moment the band distributes the album as a „choose yourself what you want to pay“ download through their own homepage. So everybody is free to choose the amount he wants to pay, and if you regard the fact that in my home country most albums have a minimum amount of 10 Euros (as download) whereas in the States you often get albums for 8 USD ..  I really hope nobody is going to download it for just 1 Cent. It’s really worth a fair amount!

The tracklist is as follows:

1. Scorpios old
2. Happy Anniversary
3. Lifer
4. We Won’t Speak Of This Again
5. Daisy Train
6. Oise
7. Weighing In
8. Lonely Parade
9. Waiting For A Spaceship
10. Moonshiner